As is known, automatic product dispensing machines comprise a frame, generally having a parallelepiped shape delimiting a housing chamber internally of which one or more stores are provided for containing a series of products to be released.
The frame exhibits, at the front wall, a transparent glass destined to enable vision of the products contained in the store so that the user can make her or his choice after having seen the actual product which will be dispensed.
The machines also include one or more selection devices suitably located in the frame such as to enable a user to choose, after payment of the sum due via an appropriate unit of payment, one of the products present in the store.
With the aim of enabling release of the product from the store and the collecting of the released product, the machines are generally provided with at least a collecting compartment at which the released product is deposited after having been selected by the user who can therefore collect it.
The most modern machines can also include the presence of at least a display associated to the frame, in particular the front wall thereof, i.e. the wall on display to the public.
Typically the display is located at the sides of the glass pane such that the user can observe the products in the store and therefore move and read any information on the product in the display and select, via the keyboard or display, if of the touch-screen type, the desired product.
The display can be used for example in association with the selection device such as to enable selection of the products to be collected.
In some models of known machines the display is interposed between the housing compartment and the external environment and is connected to a control unit which has the task of managing it such as to visualise images and/or information visible to the user.
A further example of automatic dispensing machines is described and illustrated in document CA1239680. This machine comprises a panel selecting system, sensitive to contact and the manual pressure of the user.
In detail, the panels comprise a transparent selection membrane, sensitive to a user's pressure. The selection membrane is interposed between two strata or panels made of polycarbonate in a suitable configuration for defining a respective display.
The machine further comprises a series of selection windows realised on one of a polycarbonate strata. The selection windows are backlit and show, in a photograph or drawing, the images of the products which can be released and collected by the user.
Alternatively, the images are projected from inside onto a respective polycarbonate stratus, possibly together with names or logos of the product on sale, which are thus visible externally.
The selection of the products is done by pressing the selection membrane at the respective selecting window.
A further example of the machine described and illustrated in document WO2009/027637 comprises an automatic product dispensing machine provided with an LCD display that exhibits a sequence of images that are visible from the outside. The images reproduced on the LCD display are indicative of the products contained and on sale. Via the display the users can see representations of the products and select the product of interest thereafter, via a suitable selecting device arranged in the front part of the machine.
Also known, from document US20080192027, is a machine with an interactive display destined for automated sale of products.
The glass display window comprises a display arranged internally of the exhibition area separated from the external environment via the glass window. The display is obviously visible from outside via the window and reproduces, via a back-projection, images and/or information relating to the products on sale.
The window comprises a control unit able to perceive, through a series of suitable sensors, the position of the user's hand on the external part of the glass and verify the correspondence between the position of the hand and the position of the products visualised on the display located behind the glass screen.
Although these machines and/or automatic systems for product distribution enable automatic management of the sales thereof, the applicant has found that they are not without some drawbacks and are susceptible to improvement in various aspects, mainly in relation to the general perception that the user has of each product contained in the machine.
In particular, the present applicant has found that the transition automatic dispenser machines of products only enable visualisation of the products contained in the respective machine via a respective display window and require the use of separate systems for the selection.
Further, known machines, in the attempt to provide information relating to the products, alternatively introduce LCD monitors by the side of the glass or replace the glass with large-dimension monitors, which makes it impossible, for reasons of space, to house both the glass display screen and a large LCD monitor.
Contextually, the applicant has also found that the devices provided with displays only show information and/or images and/or films relating to products on sale without enabling real visualisation of the products contained in the stores which are then released, as happens in traditional dispensers today available on the market.
According to the prior art described above, the user cannot have a view and/or overall perception of the product on sale as in the first case it is without explanatory information on the products, and, in the second case, the user has an artificial view of the products without being able to view the real package present inside the magazine.
In documents which seek to obviate the above drawback monitors are positioned at the positions of the products internally of the housing chamber, such as to be able to visually access the products and the information relating to the products more easily.
It is however clear that the increase in costs and the complexity of the adopted solution has made the market for this type of distributor rather marginal.